Year 1 DD is behind in her report

[spaide]

She was alright in reception - the jump to year 1 has been quite big for her.

whereas in reception she was even a bit ahead in reading, she’s now emerging. She’s on orange books in RWI.

her writing was at expected level in reception but has slipped to emerging as well. Her writing is improving, but she’s definitely behind a lot of her peers. As became apparent to me in the Christmas cards we’ve received. She can do it, she just needs a lot of support.

any positive stories of how kids like this can catch up ? I think her verbal reasoning and that kind of thing is fine and not behind her peers. I’ve run her report through chat gpt and it said that it the ideas and understanding are there, but there’s a slight execution bottle neck that she’ll get through with practice and a bit of time.

the teachers praise her effort and say she’s improving, which I can also see.

if there were ‘ serious concerns ‘ the teachers may have mentioned it, right ?

any experiences welcome. I’m not extremely concerned at this point yet, but just wondering how I can help her along. I really do see her trying and she’s improving.

I would agree with others that it sounds like they are assessing using an end of year assessment. I would also be very surprised if she was in the lower group for RWI for reading, orange is very good for this point in the year.

Keep doing what you are doing and as hard as it is, try not to worry. She sounds like she's doing very well indeed.

It sounds as if you are being supportive and encouraging, and it will pay off!
Sometimes pupils can hit a sort of strange bottleneck where all the stimulus goes in, but the "lightbulb moment" is delayed for some reason.
I once taught a lad who seemed impervious to all input from our fantastic staff, until, weirdly, something clicked, and his reading age (old-fashioned term I know, I'm retired!) suddenly rose by five years in one term, as he voraciously powered through every book he could get his hands on. Staff and parents were thrilled and baffled in equal measure.

Has school now finished for holidays?

Thanks so much. I really do think it’s a marathon and there will be ups and downs along the way. I think her biggest issue is probably her attention span.

whereas last year and in nursery, she was a bit more unruly and didn’t listen as much as she should perhaps.

this year, the listening seems ok and friendships also ok. So that’s positive. I’ll ask why she’s emerging if she’s on orange books. We will just keep trying at home and being consistent with it. She sits herself down all the time to write and draw and create. Those are her favourite things to do. She’ll be ok. I’m sure.

The expected level in rwi at this point of the yrar is to be reading pink books in year 1. So she's ahead there. Writing will probably come with time.

That’s what chatGPT said haha. The understanding and skill and thinking is there, but there’s an execution bottle neck that is developmental in some children.

let’s see! I’m noticing some massive differences in her writing the last few days, even compared the homework we did a couple of weeks ago.

I’m sure she’ll be fine. Doesn’t sound as if the school are very concerned and learning isn’t linear. They’re still so little.

also as far as the reading goes isn’t orange about what’s expected for y1? So it doesn’t sound like she’s very behind. There may be some comprehension to work on. If you’re worried then you can ask her teacher.

though, tbh, I spent a lot of time worrying about how my kids were doing when they were in ks1 but as they’ve got older I’ve realised that there’s really no need. Kids learn different things at different paces and some of the ones who struggled in ks1 did the best at gcse or A level. It doesn’t sound like there’s anything much to worry about and as long as she is still enjoying learning that’s the most important thing at her age.

Google says Orange RWI is for Spring of Yr1. TBH it sounds like she's doing great and you're really supportive so I would just keep doing what you're doing and not worry about it.

Can you recommend any books for her age group ? Where she can actually read them and I can read them ? But are a bit more elaborate than those boring book bag books ? ChatGPT recommended isadora moon.

also as far as the reading goes isn’t orange about what’s expected for y1?

RWI uses the colours differently to ORT (oxford reading tree) orange is actually the expected level for the end of year 1 hence why I would be surprised if her classmates were above this.

Why is she emerging then ? I need to ask the teacher.

The best option is to take her to a book shop and let her choose. Rainbow fairies are very popular at this age.

She’ll be fine, the pace of normal development is very varied at this stage and she is improving. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. If you really want to do a bit more to support her learning, then I would suggest:

Lots of reading together - books she loves and that make her laugh. Take turns to read a line sometimes, but also have times where you do all the reading and she just gets to experience the joy of the story and pictures. Sometimes get her to read short stories that are slightly below her ability, so you can praise her and make her feel confident.

Writing: stay well clear of having her copy or practice any writing, that will feel like an uphill slog for her and she needs a break from school work. Instead, try writing as part of an imaginative game - making invitations for a tea party for her toys/the fairies, let her decorate them as well so the writing is incidental. Drawing blob monsters and thinking of funny names to write on them, making an ingredient list for a trip to the shop for a baking project.

Concentrate on building her pre-writing gross motor skills - drawing in flour or sand, writing on a patio with a bucket of water with a hole in it, playing with slime or playdoh, bead threading, even decorating pizzas or iced cookies. A lot of children at this age aren’t actually physically ready for writing yet, they need to build their muscle strength and dexterity in the wrists and hands.

But don’t worry! She’ll get there. Have a lovely Christmas.

@spaide as others have said it could be that they are assessing for year end, so Orange is not expected standard for end of Y1. Obviously, confusing for parents and it would help if they explain this in reports.

Is there any written feedback? If there were serious issues the teacher would have spoken to you, they shouldn't just throw it in the school report and leave you to mull over it during Christmas holidays

As a school governor I would be given data showing where year group are against expected standard for end of year (and then comparison for previous years showing where similar grades at that time of year then converted to final data) so we could see if the cohorts were on track

Books on the school phonics scheme have to follow the phonics they are learning in the group, which does mean they can be slightly dull!

When DS was at Primary they had brought in teaching scheme for phonics but didn't have dedicated books for the scheme, so he would bring books home that bore no resemblance to the phonics/words they had been learning in class. Ofsted now expect books to follow the phonics scheme

It sounds like she's where she should be at this stage, or even ahead so it might be comparing with end of year targets. My Y1 son's school only does summer reports but I don't think he's up to the equivalent of orange level yet and I know they're happy with his reading. Cards that look like they're written by an older sibling may well have been! We had at least 2 that definitely were.

Parents sometimes write lightly in the cards and children then write over, or parents write badly in the cards to pretend their child had written them (probably after a few hours of trying to persuade said child to write them!)

Hang on, orange books, the guides are year one, spring term 1, aren’t they? This is what DDs school sent us from the RWI website.

So she’s not behind on reading at all. My dd is year 1, she’s just started on orange books and they said she’s doing exceptionally well, she’s one of the best readers in her class (August born, so I wasn’t expecting her to be).

But honestly, don’t worry. Dd is my 3rd. They all do things at different times. My ds was ahead of everything in Primary, working 2 years ahead. He did crap at secondary in the things he wasn’t interested in - he got level 9s for English, german and history, level bloody 2s for maths and science as he didn’t care about them!

I really wouldn’t worry as long as she’s happy in what she’s doing.

Yeah, I’ve known some real sad act patents in my time who write cards and invites themselves pretending to write in child’s writing to “impress” other parents.

I take it all with a pinch of salt to be honest 😂

Not read the whole thread so sorry if this is repeated.
Im a TA in yr 1. We only have 2 children who are on orange level or above. Orange level for this point in year 1 is above expected. When she reads is she confident or is she sounding out all the words? Is she understanding what she is reading? If you ask her questions about what she’s reading can she answer them?
what her phonics knowledge like?

is she at private school? I’m really suprised that you are getting termly reports. Also how much homework are you getting?

honestly try not to worry your daughter sounds like she’s doing great to me.

It depends on your philosophy on education and the school and home environment.
Personally my own view was

1. best possible outstanding school state or private for my child
2. praise effort and attainment
3. school only does 6 hours max 5 days a week 30 weeks a year so I took the view point it was MY job to educate my child- as they spend more time with me and I wanted life to be education this was in evenings, holidays and weekends
4. school Resources were supplemented with home resources
5. any SEN all of mine are - you need to fight tooth and nail with a system that is geared for non SEN.
6. that learning is lifelong and should be enjoyable the vast majority of the time yes certain things you might not like but they have to be done but most learning can and should be fun
7. the fact that learning is lifelong should be modelled by adults

so it’s ok to get things wrong or not know.

I will try to give you examples:
we have CGP books, we look ahead and look at topics over the year.

But we do this this sort of thing for every subject :

eg history My son is doing the Normans and he is year 7. So we got some books about castles and the Normans - usbourne books and we took him to Cardiff castle. We got a cut out and build model cardboard castle and had a fun Saturday rainy afternoon doing that. We made up rules for the model castle and planned things …..
We didn’t have to but we had aa day trip to wales that was pretty fun for all of us. He enjoyed making the castle.

The single biggest thing you can do is encourage and support and praise and actually spend time with them. I think reading is powerful. If you want to support writing, get her to help write Christmas cards or lists for the elves or a list of instructions for the reindeer- or bake and kneed dough

arts and crafts
music
animals
wildlife
life is education

we encourage their own interests eg son likes rugby so we have looked ag Twickenham and the history of it. He does a rugby club but we will often throw the ball in the back garden

you can always learn something off someone and teach something.

A few things were non Negotiable: learning to read (if you can’t say but you can read you can read a book about sailing), treating everyone and all animals with kindness and respect, standing up for other people or calling the wrong behaviour out, learning about racism and sexism and ableism and proactively doing something, doing something that makes you happy every day.modelling these things and having open discussion about money, politics etc

and we aren’t perfect parents but honestly enjoy them your children are unique and wonderful

Daisy and the problem with... books are quite fun!

Also here to say that orange in RWI isn't behind. My youngest is also in year 1 and moving on to orange is right for this time of year. So don't worry about it and just assume that they mean emerging compared to at the end of the school year like others have suggested.

Sounds like she's doing fine!

I'd be surprised if a Y1 on Orange could read Isadora Moon or Rainbow Fairies without a lot of help. She might manage Princess Minna with support. (I teach Y3). To echo others, Orange is absolutely fine for autumn of Y1.

Don’t worry about reading the ‘right’ level book all the time it will become a chore
comics, puzzle books reading for pleasure keeps the interest going

The early reader rainbow fairies are pretty simplistic and formulaic so are a popular choice for many ks1 children I teach.

Either way the best option is still to take her and actually see what sparks her interest and let her choose.